Rhode Islanders talk health care in D.C.

PROVIDENCE,RI – By MEGAN HALL How can we make the country's health care system more effective and less expensive? That was the topic of a hearing for the U.S. Senate's Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee Thursday, and Rhode Islanders were right in the middle of the discussion.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse chaired the hearing. He says the U.S. health care system needs a lot of work.

"It is now one of the world's least efficient, most complicated and most frustrating systems for patients and providers, but it does not have to be, it can be the envy of the world," he says.

Rhode Island Health Insurance Commissioner Christopher Koller was one of the experts testifying before the committee. He offered advice based on the Ocean State's efforts to rethink its health care system.

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